Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg has been asked by the governor to challenge a recent federal decision to list polar bears as a threatened species.

Republican Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday there is insufficient evidence to support the threatened status under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, Legal Newsline reported.

The polar bear was put under the protection of the U.S. Endangered Species Act amid fears that global climate change is causing the polar bears' ice cap-habitat to melt, even though the bears' numbers currently are not in decline.

Colberg, who is a governor's appointee, will argue that the decision to list a currently healthy species is based on not only the uncertain modeling of future climate change, but also the unproven long-term impact of any future climate change on the species, the governor's office said.

By affording the big bears special protections, the federal government is required to protect the bears in Alaska, the only place in the United States the species lives, as well as in places the U.S. issues permits, Legal Newsline reported.

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